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[Pages:21]STUDY NOTES ON "WALKING WITH GOD"

by Dr. D. W. Ekstrand

(A collection of studies from various writers)

WALKING WITH GOD ? by David Wilkerson

"Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him" (Gen 5:24). The original Hebrew meaning for walked implies that Enoch went to and fro with God, continually conversing with him and growing closer to him. In him, we see a new kind of believer. He walked arm in arm every day with the Lord ? the Lord was his very life -- so much so that at the end of his life, he did not taste death but was translated out of life (Heb 11:5). Like Enoch, those who walk closely with God are translated out of Satan's reach -- taken out of his kingdom of darkness and put into Christ's kingdom of light (Col 1:13).

Enoch learned to walk pleasingly before God in the midst of a wicked society. He was an ordinary man with all the same problems and burdens we carry, not a hermit hidden away in a wilderness cave. He was involved in life with a wife, children, obligations and undertook all his responsibilities. He cared for his family: he worked, ministered and occupied; but he was not earthbound. None of the demands of this life could keep him from his walk with God. In his spirit, Enoch was not a part of this wicked world. Each day as he walked with the Lord he became less attached to the things below. Like Paul, he died daily to this earthly life and he was taken up in his spirit to a heavenly realm. All around Enoch, mankind grew increasingly ungodly. Yet as men changed into wild beasts full of lust, hardness and sensuality, Enoch became more and more like the One with whom he walked. Though he had no Bible, no songbook, no fellow member, no teacher, no indwelling Holy Spirit... yet Enoch knew God!

Hebrews 11:5 says of Enoch: "Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." What was it about Enoch that pleased God so much? It was that his walk with God produced in him the kind of faith God loves. These two verses cannot be separated: "Before his translation he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God... without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Heb 11:5-6). We hear this latter verse often, but rarely in connection with the former. Yet throughout the Bible and all of history those who walked closely with God became men and women of deep faith. If the church is walking with God daily, communing with him continually, the result will be a people full of faith -- true faith that pleases God.

The writer to the Hebrews says, "He who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb 11:6). God is a remunerator, one who recompenses for faithfulness. How does the Lord reward his diligent ones? There are three important rewards that come by believing God and walking with him in faith.

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1. The first reward is God's control of our lives. The person who neglects the Lord soon spins out of control as the devil moves in and takes over. If only he would fall in love with Jesus, walking and talking with him!

2. The second reward that comes by faith is having "pure light." When we walk with the Lord, we are rewarded with light, direction, discernment, revelation--a certain "knowing" that God gives us.

3. The third reward that comes with a walk of faith is protection from all our enemies. "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper" (Is 54:17).

ENOCK WALKED WITH GOD ? This material is from "Scroll Publishing"

What does it mean to "walk with God"? It means several things. First, that the prevailing power of enmity in a person's heart has been taken away by the blessed Spirit of God. Secondly, that the person has actually been reconciled to God the Father. Thirdly, that the person has an abiding communion and fellowship with God -- what in Scripture is called "the Holy Spirit dwelling in us." Finally, walking with God implies our making progress in the divine life. Walking requires a progressive motion. But how does a Christian maintain such a walk with God?

Step One: Read the Scriptures

To begin with, believers maintain their walk with God by reading His Word. "Search the Scriptures," says our blessed Lord, "for these are they that testify of me" (Jn 5:39). The psalmist tells us that God's Word was a "light unto his feet, and a lantern unto his paths" (Ps 119:105). The characteristic of a good man that "his delight is in the law of the Lord, and that he meditates on it day and night" (Ps 1:2). "Give yourself to the public reading of Scripture," says Paul to Timothy (I Tim 4:13). "This book of the law," says God to Joshua, "shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it" (Josh 1:8). "Whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction" (Rom 15:4). The word of God is "profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16). If we ever think we are above our Bibles, we shall soon lie open to all manner of delusion, and be in great danger of making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. This the apostle calls the "sword of the Spirit" (Eph 6:17).

Step Two: Personal Prayer

Believers keep up their walk with God by private, personal prayer. The spirit of grace is always accompanied with the spirit of supplication. It is the very breath of the new creature, the fan of the divine life. By it, the spark of holy fire, kindled in the soul by God, is not only kept in, but raised into a flame. Neglect of private prayer has been frequently an inlet to many spiritual diseases, and has been attended with fatal consequences. Prayer is one of the most noble parts

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of the believer's spiritual armor. "Pray at all times in the Spirit" (Eph 6:18). "Pray without ceasing" (1 Th 5:17). "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation" (Mt 26:41). Prayer brings and keeps God and man together ? it raises man up to God, and brings God down to man. Even when you are about the common business of life be much in extemporaneous prayer.

Step Three: Meditation

Holy and frequent meditation is another blessed means of keeping up a believer's walk with God. Says Luther, "Prayer, reading, temptation, and meditation makes a minister." And they also make and perfect a Christian. Meditation is to the soul what digestion is to the body. David found it so, and therefore he was frequently employed in meditation, even in the night season. Meditation is a kind of silent prayer, whereby the soul is frequently (so to speak) carried out of itself to God. Through meditation, the soul is, to a degree beholds the face of our heavenly Father. None but those happy souls that have been accustomed to this divine practice can tell what a blessed promoter of the divine life meditation is. "While I was musing the fire burned," writes David (Ps 39:3). And while the believer is musing on the works and word of God, he frequently feels the fire of divine love kindle, so that he is obliged to speak with his tongue and tell of the loving kindness of the Lord to his soul. Be frequent therefore in meditation, all you who desire to maintain a close and uniform walk with the most high God.

Step Four: Noting God's Providence

Believers keep up their walk with God also by watching and noting His providential dealings with them. If we believe the Scriptures, we must believe what our Lord hath declared therein, "that the very hairs of his disciples' heads are numbered; and that a sparrow does not fall to the ground, without the knowledge of our heavenly Father" (Mt 10:29). Every cross has a call in it. And every particular dispensation of divine providence has some particular end to answer in those to whom it is sent. Seek to know what God is saying to you. "A little hint from providence," says pious Bishop Hall, "is enough for faith to feed upon."

Step Five: Seek the Guidance of the Spirit

In order to walk closely with God, his children must not only watch the motions of God's providence around them, but they must also take note of the moving of His blessed Spirit within their hearts. "As many as are the sons of God, are led by the Spirit of God" (Rom 8:14). They give up themselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit, just as a little child gives its hand to be led by a nurse or parent. However, it is the quintessence of enthusiasm to pretend to be guided by the Spirit without the written Word -- it is every Christian's bounden duty to be guided by the Spirit in conjunction with the written word of God. You must always test the suggestions or impressions that you may at any time feel, by the unerring rule of God's holy Word. And if they are not found to be agreeable to that, reject them as diabolical and delusive.

Step Six: Obedience

Those who would maintain a holy walk with God must walk with him in His commandments as well as in His providences. It is recorded of Zacharias and Elizabeth, that "they walked in all God's ordinance, as well as commandments, blameless" (Lk 1:6). All rightly informed Christians

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will look upon commandments, not as beggarly elements, but as so many conduit-pipes by which the infinitely condescending Jehovah conveys his grace to their souls. They will look upon them as children's bread, and as their highest privileges. Consequently they will delight to visit the place where God's honor dwells -- "Come, let us go up to the house of the Lord" (Ps 122:1).

Step Seven: Godly Association

Finally, if you would walk with God, you will associate and keep company with others who walk with Him. "My delight," says David, "is in them that do excel in virtue" (Ps 16:3). In his sight, they were the excellent ones of the earth. The early Christians kept up their vigor and first love by continuing in fellowship one with another. Writes Paul, "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together (Heb 10:25). For how can one be warm alone? Did not the wisest of men say, "As iron sharpens iron, so does the countenance of a man sharpen his friend"? (Prv 27:17). So it is necessary for those who would walk with God to meet together when they can, in order to provoke one another to love and good works (Heb 10:24).

THE SECRET OF WALKING WITH GOD ? by Bob Sorge

God is looking for not only a clinging bride but also a walking partner. From the very beginning, God had a relationship with Adam and Eve that found them "walking in the garden in the cool of the day" (Gen 3:8). God created man for the enjoyment of a walking relationship that involved companionship, dialogue, intimacy, joint decision-making, mutual delight, and shared dominion. God longs to walk with you, which is why His arms of grace have been pulling you into a closer walk with Him. Jesus went on walks with his disciples, and He still likes to walk with us today. The goal we're after is an everyday walk of unbroken communion with our Lord and friend.

Enoch was the first man in the Bible who walked with God (Gen 5:22-24). Even though men began to call upon the name of the Lord in the earliest of times (Gen 4:26), Enoch was the first man to uncover the true delight of walking with God. He found something even Adam didn't experience. He pressed into God until he learned how to commune with God through every facet of life. To find that dimension of relationship certainly required an intense spiritual pursuit, and then when he found it the Lord made a graphic statement by catching him up to heaven.

By taking Enoch up to glory, God wasn't trying to get us impressed with Enoch's piety. God's point was this, "I love to walk with man! Enoch was the first man to truly walk with me, so I decided to highlight his example by doing something extraordinary with him. I took him up to paradise to underscore how much I value and desire a daily walking relationship with My chosen ones." Enoch's example continues to witness to all generations of the great zeal God has to walk with man. One can only wonder what glorious depths of intimacy Enoch uncovered. As you draw close to God, He will not likely take you up to heaven as He did Enoch. However, He does desire to reveal the beauty of His face to you. As we walk with Him, He will open the Scriptures to us through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and reveal to us the light of the glory of God

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that is to be found in Him. When we walk with God, we enter the dimension where God unfolds the secrets of his kingdom. These are the paths that the ancients trod before us. Noah knew the secret of walking with God (Gen 6:9), as did Abraham (Gen 24:40). Through Christ, you can explore the glorious riches of knowing God like they did -- by His indwelling Spirit.

God wants to walk with us before He works through us. So He will wait to act until He finds the right man or woman through whom He can work. To put it bluntly, God works with His friends. When God has a friend, divine activity accelerates. When God has a useful vessel that has been prepared for noble purposes, He will use that vessel. God will use the one who walks with Him. But He's looking especially for three crucial qualities; humility, faithfulness, and loyalty. He wants to work with friends who are loyal to Him, no matter what. Even when circumstances would suggest God is unjust, His true friends continue to walk with Him. So the Lord will test our fidelity. When we prove ourselves His friends through the greatest calamities of life, we qualify as useful vessels.

The secret place is where we develop a walking relationship with God. Our inner chamber with Him becomes our training ground for a life that is rooted and grounded in love. Jesus told us that He confides His kingdom purposes to his friends (Jn 15:15). Lord, I want to be your friend and hear Your heart, and participate in your activities in this hour. Teach me Lord to walk with you!

(This edited material is from Secrets of the Secret Place by Bob Sorge. Greenwood, Missouri: Oasis House, 2001)

WALKING WITH GOD ? by George Whitefield (1714-1770)

"Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." Various are the pleas and arguments which men of corrupt minds frequently urge against yielding obedience to the just and holy commands of God. But, perhaps, one of the most common objections that they make is this, that our Lord's commands are not practicable, because contrary to flesh and blood; and consequently, that he is "a hard master, reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where he has not strewed." These we find were the sentiments entertained by that wicked and slothful servant mentioned in Matt 24; and are undoubtedly the same with many which are maintained in the present wicked & adulterous generation. The Holy Spirit foreseeing this, hath taken care to inspire holy men of old, to record the examples of many holy men and women; who, even under the Old Testament dispensation, were enabled cheerfully to take Christ's yoke upon them, and counted his service perfect freedom. The large catalogue of saints, confessors, and martyrs, drawn up in Hebrews 11, abundantly evidences the truth of this observation. What a great cloud of witnesses have we there presented to our view? All eminent for their faith, but some shining with a greater degree of luster than do others. The first martyr Abel leads the van, and next to him we find Enoch being mentioned ? he is spoken of in the words of the text in a very extraordinary manner. We have here a short but very full and glorious account, both of his behavior in this world, and the triumphant manner of his entry into the next. "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not: for God took him" ? God had translated him.

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Who this Enoch was is not as clear ? to me, he seems to have been a person of public character; I suppose, like Noah, a preacher of righteousness. And, if we may credit the apostle Jude, he was a flaming preacher. For he quotes one of his prophecies, wherein he says, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." But whether a public or private person, he has a noble testimony given him in the lively oracles. The author of Hebrews says, that before his translation he had this testimony ? "that he was pleasing to God;" and his being translated, was a proof of it beyond all doubt. And I would observe, that it was the wonderful wisdom of God to translate both Enoch and Elijah under the Old Testament dispensation, that hereafter, when it should be asserted that the Lord Jesus was carried into heaven, it might not seem a thing altogether incredible to the Jews; since they themselves confessed that two of their own prophets had been translated several hundred hears before. But the thing I wish to give primary emphasis to in this discourse, is the fact that ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD. If so much as this can be truly said of you and me after our decease, we shall not have any reason to complain that we have lived in vain. In handling my intended subject, I shall...

? Endeavor to show what is implied in these words, walked with God. ? Prescribe those means by which believers may maintain their walk with God. ? Offer some motives to stir us up to come and walk with God.

FIRST, I am to show what is implied in these words, "walked with God;" and what we are to understand by walking with God.

FIRST, walking with God implies, that the prevailing power of the enmity of a person's heart be taken away by the blessed Spirit of God. Perhaps it may seem a hard saying to some, but our own experience daily proves what the scriptures in many places assert, that the carnal mind, the mind of the unconverted natural man ? nay, the mind of the regenerate ? so far as any part of him remains unrenewed, is enmity against God; so that it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. Indeed, one may well wonder that any creature, especially that lovely creature man, made after his Maker's own image, should ever have any enmity, much less a prevailing enmity, against that very God in whom he lives, and moves, and hath his being. But so it is. Our first parents contracted it when they fell from God by eating the forbidden fruit, and the bitter and malignant contagion of it hath descended to, and quite overspread, their whole posterity. This enmity discovered itself in Adam's endeavoring to hide himself in the trees of the garden. When he heard the voice of the Lord God, instead of running with an open heart, saying Here I am... he now wanted no communion with God! and later excused his behavior by saying, "The woman Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." By saying thus, he in effect lays all the fault upon God; as though he had said, "If Thou hadst not given me this woman, I would not have sinned against Thee, so Thou mayest thank Thyself for my transgression." In the same manner this enmity works in the hearts of Adam's children. They now and again find something rising against God, and saying even unto God, "What doest Thou?" This enmity discovered itself in accursed Cain; he hated and slew his brother Abel, because Abel loved, and was peculiarly favored by his God. And this same enmity rules and prevails in every man that is naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam. Hence that an averseness to prayer and holy duties

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which we find in children, and very often in grown persons, who have notwithstanding been blessed with a religious education. And all that open sin and wickedness, which like a deluge has overflowed the world, are only so many streams running from this dreadful contagious fountain; I mean an enmity of man's desperately wicked and deceitful heart. Before a person can be said to walk with God, the prevailing power of this heart-enmity must be destroyed: for persons do not walk together who entertain an irreconcilable enmity and hatred against each other. Permit me to say, the prevailing power of this enmity must be taken away; and it will never be totally removed, till we bow down our heads, and give up the ghost. The apostle Paul speaks of himself when he says, "that when he would do good, evil was present with him, so that he could not do the things which he would." This is what he calls sin dwelling in him ? his sin disposition. As the ninth article of our church affirms: some sensuality, some affectation, some desire of the flesh doth remain in us who are regenerated ? its prevailing power is gradually destroyed in every soul that is truly born of God, and more and more weakened as the believer grows in grace, and the Spirit of God gains a greater and greater ascendancy in the heart.

SECOND, walking with God not only implies, that the prevailing power of the enmity of a man's heart be taken away, but also that a person is actually reconciled to God the Father, in and through the all-sufficient righteousness and atonement of His dear Son. "Can two walk together unless they are agreed? (Amos 3:3). Jesus is our peace as well as our peace-maker. When we are justified by faith in Christ, then we have peace with God ? and only then are we able to walk with Him. Walking with a person is a sign that we are friends to that person; though we were at variance, yet now we are reconciled and friends again. This is the great errand that gospel ministers are sent out upon ? to us is committed the ministry of reconciliation; as ambassadors for God, we are to beseech sinners, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled unto God, and when they comply with the gracious invitation, and are actually by faith brought into a state of reconciliation with God, then, and not till then, may they be said so much as to begin to walk with God.

THIRD, walking with God implies a settled abiding communion and fellowship with God; or what in scripture is called, "the Holy Spirit dwelling in us." This is what our Lord promised when he told His disciples that "the Holy Spirit would be in and with them;" to reside and make His abode in their hearts. This is what the apostle John would have us understand, when he talks of a person "abiding in Christ." And this is what is particularly meant in the words of our text. "And Enoch walked with God" ? that is, he kept up and maintained a holy, settled, habitual, though not an altogether uninterrupted communion and fellowship with God, in and through Christ Jesus. So walking with God consists especially in the fixed habitual bent of the will for God, in a habitual dependence upon His power and promise, in a habitual voluntary dedication of our all to His glory, in a habitual eyeing of His precept in all we do, and in a habitual complacence in His pleasure in all we suffer.

FOURTH, walking with God implies our making progress or advances in the divine life. Walking seems to suppose a progressive motion ? a person that walks, though he move slowly, yet he goes forward, and does not continue in one place. And so it is with those that walk with God. They go on, as the Psalmist says, "from strength to strength;" or, in the language of the apostle Paul, "they pass from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord."

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Indeed, in one sense, the divine life admits of neither increase nor decrease. When a soul is born of God, to all intents and purposes he is a child of God; and though he should live to the age of Methuselah, yet he would then be only a child of God after all. But in another sense, the divine life admits of decays and additions. Hence it is, that we find the people of God charged with backslidings and losing their first love. And hence it is that we hear of babes, young men, and fathers in Christ. And upon this account it is that the apostle exhorts Timothy, "to let his progress be made known to all men." And what is here required of Timothy in particular, by Peter is enjoined on all Christians in general ? "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." For the new creature increases in spiritual stature; and though a person can but be a new creature, yet there are some that are more conformed to the divine image than others, and will after death be admitted to a greater degree of blessedness. For want of observing this distinction, even some gracious souls, that have better hearts than heads, (as well as men of corrupt minds, reprobates concerning the faith) have unawares run into downright Antinomian principles, denying all growth of grace in a believer, or any marks of grace to be laid down in the scriptures of truth. From such principles, and more especially from practices naturally consequent on such principles, may the Lord of all lords deliver us!

SECOND, by what means do believers maintain their walk with God?

FIRST, believers keep up and maintain their walk with God by reading of His holy Word. "Search the scriptures," says our blessed Lord, "for these are they that testify of Me." And the psalmist tells us "that God's Word was a light unto his feet, and a lantern unto his paths;" "that his delight is in the law of the Lord, and that he meditates upon it day and night." Says Paul to Timothy, "Give thyself to reading." `And says God to Joshua, "this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth." For whatever was written in earlier times "was written for our instruction." And "the Word of God is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the true child of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." If we once get above our Bibles, and cease making the written word of God our sole rule both as to faith and practice, we shall soon lie open to all manner of delusion, and be in great danger of making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. Our blessed Lord, though He had the Spirit of God without measure, yet always was governed by, and fought the devil with, "It is written." This the apostle calls the "sword of the Spirit." The scriptures are called "the living oracles of God," not only because they are generally made use of to beget in us a new life, but also to keep up and increase it in the soul. The apostle Peter, in his second epistle, prefers it even to seeing Christ transfigured upon the mount. For after he had said, "This voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount" (2 Pet 1:18), he adds, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy, to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts;" that is, till we shake off these bodies, and see Jesus face to face. Till then we must see and converse with Him through the glass of His Word. We must make His testimonies our counselors, and daily, with Mary, sit at Jesus' feet, by faith hearing His Word. We shall then by happy experience find, that they are spirit and life, meat indeed and drink indeed, to our souls.

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